Advances in laser technologies have enabled construction of laser sources which can be utilized in high energy physics applications. A laser beam can irradiate a target to facilitate generation of x-rays and other particles such as electrons, protons, photons, neutrons, etc., where such particle emissions can be utilized in applications such as radiography, airport security, crystallography, astronomy, spectroscopy, etc. While x-rays can identify high atomic number (high Z) materials such as stainless steel, neutrons can be utilized to identify low Z material such as polystyrene foams, wood, water. It can be beneficial to have a mixed source of x-rays and other particles which, when irradiated by a laser beam, can facilitate identification of both high Z and low Z materials.
While neutrons can be produced by a laser-target approach, neutrons can also be produced by Dense Plasma Focus machine (DPF). DPF typically produce neutrons of 2.45 MeV (when using deuterium-deuterium) or 14.1 MeV (when using deuterium-tritium). The maximum neutron energy is thus limited to 14 MeV. The neutron emission is typically isotropic, and requires use of tritium which is radioactive, and difficult to obtain and store. A conventional laser-target approach can generate neutrons having energies>15 MeV, can be energy tunable in a more continuous way. It can also allow for a broader energy spectrum of the neutrons produced and thus allows for applications such as resonance radiography. However the laser can be costly owing to the requirement to operate with a beam intensity exceeding 1×1018 W/cm2.